Underneath the Underneath
by LeaMichelle
Summary: There are certain people that have twisted views of what it means to be a ninja. There are certain people that can be blinded by the obvious, and not see the underneath. There ar certain people who want to use Uzimaki Naruto.   Sasuke/Naruto


Underneath the Underneath

A/N: I know a lot of fan fics start this way, and the scenes might seem overly dramatic, but bear with me. It's important for the story in the future.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, its characters, the manga/anime, or its overall plot. I do own this storyline, I am not making profit off of this fan fiction. Basically—I no own, you no sue

October 10th, Age Five

Uzimaki Naruto didn't know how to feel about this day.

A large part of him hated it. Something bad always happened on this day, the villagers were particularly nasty. You'd think they'd be nicer to him, seeing as it was a festival. He had to constantly stay hidden today, or he would get hurt without fail. At the same time, he always got to eat today. It was incredible how wasteful people were, throwing half eaten food into waste bins left and right, candy, fries, drinks, toys even. So today was fun and dandy in that respect. He could eat, entertain himself, and overall not be too bored. He respected today, for nothing else, if not for the Yondaime. The Fourth Hokage of Kanoha, a selfless man who defeated a monsterous entity at the price of his own life: Kyubi no Kitsune. If that wasn't worthy of an entire day of celebration in your name and memory, he couldn't think what was. He vowed to himself to be as great as the fourth, he would have a day—no, a whole week—in honor of his name. Someday. And then everyone would have to smile at him, and respect him, and acknowledge him in positive ways. October 10th also happened to be his birthday. Again, he didn't quite know how to feel. A large darker part of him wished it didn't exist.

Because somedays were so hard.

Because somedays he never wanted to wake up.

Today was a constant list of reminders: violence, hatred, dreams, regrets, happiness, anger… loneliness. He shook his head, trying to dispel his glum thoughts. He didn't usually acknowledge these thoughts at all, it always hurt more if he gave them too much attention. So he smiled. And he laughed, and he was loud, so it would seem like there was someone else in the silence other than just him. Still… he never got candy. The reminder of what he had awaiting him immediantly chased any negative thoughts out of his head and filled him instead with giddiness. This was fabulous! He munched greedily on whatever sweet he was shoveling into his nmouth. He hadn't the foggiest clue what it was, but damn! He would have to hurry, it would be getting dark out soon, and he would have to go somewhere else. He entertained the idea of another book. Maybe he could sneak into the library's basement again, and find one of those cool ninja scrolls.

Ninjas!

No wait—Shinobi.

They were strong people, silent, efficient, powerful. They seemed almost unreal, but it was part of his dream. Maybe he could show everyone what a great Shinobi he could be, and everything would work out. Not to mention, no one would dare pick on him. He would get paid, he would be respected. He was halfway there already, if he did say so himself. He could sneak around most of Kanoha and take things without anyone being the wiser. Only if he really, really needed to though—he wasn't some common thief. He was rudely interrupted from his musings of ninjas and their awesomeness by the sound of several loud, obviously drunk men ambling his way. They were stumbling, laughing loudly, and Naruto had a bad feeling.

And he was never wrong about these bad feelings.

"Sasuke, be right back. I'll be in there."

Uchiha Sasuke nodded happily, not ppaying Itachi any mind as he stepped into some shop. He was finishing the last of his omigiri, savoring every bite of wonderful, marvelous tomato. It was beginning to get dark and he knew they would have to go home soon. He didn't really want to go home, he was bursting with energy from all the candy and sugary drinks Itachi had bought for him all day, poking his forhead playfully and telling him he was silly. What Itachi really meant was, "Don't tell Okasan and Otousan." Either way, he didn't want to miss a minute of possible excitement. He looked back at the shop his brother had disappeared to, wishing for him to hurry up. He no longer had his tomato to keep him occupied—he was entirely too full, anyway. Itachi hadn't specifically told him to wait here or anything, and so Sasuke decided he was big boy enough to walk around the general vincinity until he returned. He ambled along, looking at everything and nothing in particular.

The further he walked, the more he noticed the senery was beginning to change. With the coming blanket of darkness came new people into the night that he hadn't noticed earlier. He wandered further and further away from the festivities, fascinated with this new part of town he hadn't seen before. Usually he wasn't out of the Uchiha compound very much, and never after dark. The streets here weren't familiar, but he had absolute confidence he could easily find his way back. Neon signs were flickering on, pubs were starting to get noisier, people were starting to act funny. And there were no children his age—at all really—where were all the children? He could see a lot of men. Men smoking, men laughing, men with increasingly stupid looks on their faces. He thought it was hilarious, grown men acting so silly, and they were all smiling and laughing. He wondered why he wasn't aloud out of the compound at night anyway, it seemed perfectly nice. He walked under pretty lanterns illuminating his way, hands stuffed casually into his pockets. He could absently hear a disturbance further up ahead of him, at the mouth of some alley he was about to pass. He didn't really pay attention to it until he suddenly could hear screaming.

Sasuke froze in his tracks, eyes wide, his body completely still.

The noise was terrible, screams from a high pitch voice mixed with sobs, no words, just the sound of total misery. It sounded like someone was being murdered, the screams were long, drawn out, and never seem to stop. It would fluctuate, getting softer, more along the lines of a whimper, before a sudden sharp and loud wail would split the air again. He felt a hot knot of dread sieze him as he forced his legs to move, automatically, without thinking of the obvious danger. He ran the distance across the street, skidding to a sudden stop upon reaching the site that filled his eyes.

There were maybe five of them, all swarming around something—someone, throwing punches and delivering kicks, all the while laughing uproariously amidst the cries he could clearly hear coming from the subject of their amusement. And then abruptly, he saw it. No, he saw him. The boy. Because it was a boy, a small scrawny thing looking no older than three, with messy dirty blond hair, and big blue eyes. The eyes looked at him, not really seeing Sasuke frozen in his spot. The eyes were streaming water, running down his strangely marked cheeks. They were full of fear, anguish, hopelessness, as if he knew no one was coming for him. They were heart breaking, mind boggling, darkest blue with the look of constantly being haunted. His face was scrunched up in an effort to keep the noise that kept ripping out of his mouth inside of him to no avail. Sasuke could see a terrible sticky crimson substance oozing on the boy's skin in various places, the skin itself discolored with quickly darkening bruises. And his entire body was shaking, trembling, flinching with every contact.

"Stop," he heard himself whisper faintly, "Stop," he said in a slightly louder voice. Why weren't they stopping, couldn't they see, couldn't they hear what they were doing to him, the boy was pleading. The boy was pleading in broken nonsensical words, constantly being interrupted by himself and the various strikes.

"Ah! The monster is afraid, is he? Well this is nothing," the man spoke savagely, his teeth bared in a cruel sneer. "This is only a little piece of what the rest of us has gone through."

"Can't believe he dares to be out, today of all days!" Another man exclaimed, suddenly swinging a glass bottled and shattering it overtop the already battered blond head. The shards flew everywhere, showering the boy with sharp glass. The boy gave a desperate sounding cry, trying to bring his arms up to protect himself, and Sasuke snapped. He could feel himself running, running and screaming at the top of his lungs. He was barely even aware of what he was doing, where he was going, and suddenly Itachi was there, hugging and holding him and trying to get him to calm down, to tell him, to tell him that—that—

"Aniki!" he thrust the older boy's arms away from him, frantic, "Aniki! Aniki there's a boy! There's a boy—" he yanked on Itachi's arm, running again, dragging the older of the two behind him. Itachi said nothing, just followed quietly behind Sasuke with his brows furrowed, his expression worried. They arrived at the place to utter silence. Sasuke gaped, still clutching tightly to Itachi's arm.

"But… but—he was, he was… "

Sasuke looked around him, shocked. There were slivers and chunks of glass everywhere, cans of alcohol along with other trash—were those French fries?—and the terrible crimson color. But there was no boy, no crazy men that reeked and laughingly beat a crying child up. Where had they gone? It didn't take that long for them to get here, surely? What about the boy, what happened to him? Dread seized him once again. He could feel all the sugary candies and drinks climbing up his throat, the tase of it was disgusting.

"They were here," Sasuke muttered, his eyes still staring as Itachi pried himself away to inspect the alley. He watched as the young man picked up cans and other trash, scrutinizing each item before tossing it in a nearby dumpster. Sasuke grimaced when he saw Itachi run his finger through some of the crimson.

"Sasuke,"

Sasuke snapped his head up at the sound of his name.

"Sasuke," Itachi continued calmly, "Did you see this boy?"

"Blonde hair, blue eyes." Sasuke responded immediantly knowing what Itachi wanted. Now his big brother was going to find these people, or tell their Father and the police, and make sure no one ever did this again. "And something was on his face," he added as an after thought, remembering the three horizontal lines streaking his cheeks. "Lines."

Itachi blinked slowly, "Lines?" He stared at Sasuke who nodded confidently.

"lines."

"Ok."

Itachi moved forward, grasped Sasuke's hand and began walking. Sasuke trotted beside him meekly, his mind still stuck on what he'd just seen. Why would anyone do something like that? What could this child have possibly done? Surely he didn't deserve it in any way, and what were they talking about? He just couldn't wrap his mind around the concept of anyone being so cruel. Couldn't they see his tears, his eyes? Those blue eyes… Couldn't they hear him?

"Aniki," Sasuke tugged on his hand, "Aniki are we going to find them?" At Itachi's look he rushed on, "Those people, I mean. You believe me, don't you?" Because that thought had just occurred to him. Sasuke was considered very intelligent for his age, though not at the same level as his brother, but still. Adults were not always willing to listen to a child, and more often times than not were brushed off, or smiled at without taking anything in.

"Yes." He paused for a moment. "We are going to inform father on the matter." Sasuke nodded. Uchiha Fugaku was head of Kanoha's military police, and would more than qualify for the job of hunting these people down. Sasuke stayed quiet the rest of the way to their house. Niether of them said anything as they walked through the door and took off their shoes.

"Did you too have fun today?"Came a bright cheery call from the kitchen, completely opposing the way Sasuke felt. Itachi glanced in Sasuke's direction before entering the kitchen and sitting at the table. Sasuke followed slowly, clumsily climbing into his own chair. Itachi watched silently before speaking.

"Where is Otousan?"

The pretty dark haired woman working at the stove blinked. "He should be back any minute now, in a meeting , I think."She bustled about, placing two steaming cups of tea in front of her sons before sitting down at the table herself with her own cup.

Sasuke sipped at his cup quietly while his mother engaged Itachi in a conversation about his current training to become a Jounin. Itachi was only 10, but had already become Chunin and was an overall extraordinary ninja. Sasuke spent most of his time daydreaming about one day being as great as his Aniki, gaining Otousan's admiration, and joining the military police force like so many of the Uchihas. At the moment though, he wasn't thinking about any of those things.

"Okasan, today at the festival, I saw this boy—"

"Sasuke," Itachi quietly cut him off. "Let us wait to discuss this until Otousan arrives."

"What?" Mikoto looked between her two sons, "What?"

"Yes, what?"

All heads looked up at the timely arrival of Uchiha Fugaku as he calmly took his shoes off and placed them by the door with the others. Four neat pairs of shoes. He then proceeded to stand there, arms crossed, looking expectantly at Itachi.

"Otousan, please sit down."

Fugaku frowned disprovingly at an order from his son, but pulled out a chair and sat. Itachi was one of the few people who could get away with giving him small orders. Now everyone was at the table, waiting. Sasuke stared at Itachi, wondering why this was such a big deal, and how Itachi was going to go about this.

He started out calmly, his features expressionless, like he did everything else. "Today Sasuke saw something," he paused. "Disturbing." Fugaku swung his gaze over to his youngest son with a raised eyebrow, before directing his attention back to Itachi. "Explain."

"Sasuke informed me that there was a boy in an alley having unjust and violent treatment directed towards him."

Sasuke really hadn't done any such thing, he had merely stammered and dragged him to the place in question, Itachi was not saying that, for some reason.

Fugaku said nothing for a moment, as if waiting for more information. Finally he spoke. "Who was the boy?" Sasuke felt this was a strange question to ask. Wasn't he suppose to ask who did it? Itachi glanced towards Sasuke, nodding his head.

"He was really small," Sasuke started out timidly, his father's gaze on him slightly unnerving. "He was blonde, he had blue eyes, and three horizontal lines on each cheek." There, Sasuke was proud of himself for giving such an accurate description without stammering. Fugaku narrowed his eyes. "I see."

Sasuke waited for something else, but Fugaku merely got up from the table to get himself a cup of tea. Sasuke looked at his mother in confusion. The woman squirmed slightly in her seat, seeming uncomfortable. He then looked to Itachi for an explanation. Itachi looked back at him stoicly, before letting out a small sigh.

"Father, are you not going to take action? A civilian of Kanoha has just experienced severe abuse in the village you are suppose to help protect."

Fugaku glanced over his shoulder, "He is no civilian," he atoned, before walking out of the room. Mikoto swiftly got to her feet and left the room as well, leaving Sasuke in stunned silence.

"Wh- what, he's not a civilian?"

Itachi's brows were furrowed, and his lips were formed into a displeased frown. He then caught sight of Sasuke's expression before letting out another sigh, this one louder and more drawn out.

"Some people do not believe him to have the same rights as civilians." At Sasuke's dumbfounded look, he sighed again. "Perhaps you should find this boy and question him yourself, I cannot tell you the answers you wish to know."

"Why?"

Itachi didn't answer. All he said was, "Not everything is as it appears." Then he too left the room.

That night Sasuke tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep. His thoughts were churning as to why a little boy was not getting help he deserved. And when he finally fell asleep, it was to restless dreams of haunting blue eyes and horizontal lines.

A/N: All right, the reason Danso (or is it Dansu?) is the second main character. He's not in it yet, next chapter or the one after, but he is one of the most important driving characters in the story. Sasuke is also going to be a big part, so get ready!

Pleeasseee review!

LeaMichelle


End file.
